A/N: I've been scratching my head at this update notice for a while now. Has it truly been a year since I last updated this? If so, I'm incredibly sorry, though I'm determined to get back into writing now that school is out! So, Chapter 4! Things start taking a turn for the more serious here, and true conflict arises (as I can't simply make everything fluff, now can I?) Enjoy~
Days with Alfred started to become strangely normal. When Kiku's few days off ended, he started going to work once more. As Alfred was, technically, a computer, Kiku was granted permission to bring him into work. This happened exactly once, as Alfred was required to block all functions that weren't work appropriate, a setting he did have installed. This left the normally bright robot incredibly still and emotionless until the work day was over. Even Kiku's co-workers, who had been happy to greet Alfred when he first arrived as a change of pace (both in their work environment, and in their limited interactions with Kiku himself), were shocked to see such a vibrant character so lifeless, and no one complained when Alfred's first time as an office computer was his last.
Still, Alfred was a quick favorite in Kiku's office building, and the reason that many of his co-workers started talking to Kiku on a daily basis. Yet, while at any other time Kiku would quickly become reclusive at such frequent conversations, Kiku seemed to enjoy talking about Alfred and his many quirks.
As Alfred got used to the city, Kiku allowed him to go out on his own at times. He still preferred to be with the robot, but during his lunch break Alfred would arrive to bring him food (and say hello to the co-workers), and having a robot able to do the shopping made Kiku's life just that much easier.
Yes, Kiku's life was just getting brighter with every day Alfred was with him. His co-workers commented several times on how his stoic disposition had softened a touch, and Yao, Kiku's older brother, had been incredibly pleased when he and Kiku spoke in a video call and he had seen that Kiku was much less pale and thin and exhausted. He struggled to understand Kiku's explanation of how Alfred was less of a machine and more a friend (as Yao often struggled to understand any emotional connection to things that were "fake", such as movies and comic books), but the man seemed happy nonetheless, insisting on visiting in a few weeks to see him.
There were small, strange occurrences in Kiku's life, however, that added to a sense of mystery around Alfred. For example, one day Kiku came into the living room, buttoning his dress shirt, when he found Alfred seemingly talking to himself with his eyes closed, though in English, which Kiku struggled to understand, despite how he liked to consider himself a fluent speaker of English. He was smiling, as usual, and nodding his head, giving small "Mmhmm's" to some unknown person.
When Alfred started to speak, Kiku was incredibly lost in the flurry of quick, excited words. He could pick up little traces of a sentence, such as how happy Alfred was, how Japan was a nice place. Alfred spoke often of Kiku, and he picked up a few positive words, but Alfred was simply speaking too fast to make any sense of it.
The conversation with… someone… was very short lived, and soon Alfred was saying "Good bye" and "good luck", before the conversation was over and Alfred opened his eyes, standing to get ready for the day. It took him only a moment longer before he saw Kiku, freezing in surprise.
"Who were you talking to, Alfred-kun?" Kiku asked curiously, finishing the buttons on his shirt and slipping on his jacket, gauging Alfred's reaction carefully.
"Uh…." Alfred stuttered, looking around the room. Something told Kiku that, if he truly wanted, he could get the true identity of this mystery person out of Alfred. He had found multiple times that, after initial hesitation, Alfred truly could never say no to Kiku's request for answers, and could never lie to the man. Something about this fact bothered him every time.
"Hmm, it doesn't sound like someone I know, so the answer doesn't really matter then, I suppose," Kiku said softly, watching Alfred's frame relax out of the corner of his eye. Alfred had his own secrets, that much Kiku knew, and while he knew others, like his brother, would find his choice strange, Kiku wanted to give Alfred the freedom to keep those secrets, just as he had the freedom to keep his own.
That didn't stop him from wondering about the oddities that entered his life with Alfred. For example, the two men, the bespectacled blond and the green-eyed brunet, appeared multiple times since that first day with Alfred. The times he saw them were always brief and sudden, they were always staring at him from a distance, and they were always gone the second his gaze returned to them.
Once, he attempted to approach where he had last seen the brunet, getting within a few meters of where he had disappeared, when a young, dirty-blond haired boy interrupted him, speaking a language that Kiku couldn't guess if he wanted to. After a few minutes of failed communication, the boy seemed to get flustered and disappeared with the crowd once more.
These occurrences were simple and small, being more curious than worrisome, when, on a simple weekend off of work, Alfred's strangeness became even more dangerous.
His smile and focus had been in and out since the morning, yet when Kiku asked, he was given an unsatisfactory answer of "I'm fine, don't worry", no matter how often the question was asked. Kiku had finally given up after about fifteen times of asking, deciding to read some manga and allow Alfred to work out his strange problem on his own. Still, his eyes kept drifting from the page and over to Alfred, who sat alone on the floor near the corner of the room. It was dark enough to see Alfred's glowing eyes go from bright to dim and back again, and as the glow got dimmer, Alfred's head would hang forwards, before straightening again as the light brightened again.
Kiku's worry built more and more while he watch the robot's fingers twitch and back stiffen. Once, he straightened, like he meant to get up, as the color of his eyes changed to a deep violet, before shaking his head and returning to his dimming and brightening.
Something was obviously incredibly wrong with Alfred, and when the robot's eyes dimmed and didn't brighten as he fell forwards onto the hard wooden ground of Kiku's apartment, Kiku had to put the manga down and approach his still form.
"Alfred-kun…?" He said meekly to the still robot. The sound of Alfred's motors could be heard even without getting too close, suggesting that there was something causing it to overwork, yet Alfred didn't so much as twitch at his name.
Getting on his knees next to the stiff form, Kiku studied Alfred's emotionless face, reaching closer to touch his cheek in hopes the touch would return him to normal, when Alfred's hand shot forwards and clutched tightly to Kiku's upper arm.
He winced harshly, feeling the motors in Alfred's hand tighten more and more, likely leaving deep bruises in the man's flesh, while Alfred himself stiffly stood, eyes the same violet as they were before, keeping trained on something far ahead.
"A-Alfred-kun!" Kiku said, attempting to make his shaking voice firm and authoritative, but when Alfred's eyes locked on Kiku's face with such a cold, lifeless expression, Kiku could do little more than shrink back away from him. After a pause, Alfred seemed to get the sudden urge to leave, shoving Kiku harshly away and turning to the door.
Narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the coffee table, Kiku scrambled to his feet and stumbled after Alfred, calling his name and clutching to the robot's arm, yet he was unstoppable in his trek to the door. With little else he could do, he threw himself in front of the door, arms blocking the robot's path.
"Alfred-kun, stop right now!" Kiku said firmly, giving the first true order he had ever given the robot. There was a pause, and a brief moment where Alfred looked like he was about to say something, before his hands shot out and he clutched Kiku by the wrists. Kiku cringed slightly as Alfred's iron grasp threatened to snap his arm in two, but stood his ground firmly. "Alfred-kun, you are stronger than whatever is making you act this way. You must stop it!"
Alfred paused, his eyes staring at Kiku with the coldness of a statue, before his grasp switched to Kiku's upper arm and just above his knee, having the young Japanese man in the air in seconds. As Kiku pushed against the man's firm grasp, Alfred stood poised to slam him down against the hard floor. Kiku didn't dare image the damage the impact would cause as he braced for impact, but instead of following through with his obvious plan, Alfred froze. Kiku heard the motors get louder and louder, and could feel the gears twitching under Alfred's skin. The moment felt as though it lasted forever, and then the sound stopped and both Alfred and Kiku toppled to the floor.
Kiku's head smacked against the wood, and he lay dazed for a few moments, attempting to understand what had happened. It was a long while before he finally lifted his head to look at Alfred. If he didn't know Alfred was a robot, he might assume he was dead by his opened eyes and still body. He reached over and touched his shoulder, but he was motionless. What the hell was that…?
Touching the lump forming on the back of his head, Kiku stood slowly and shuffled through the books on his shelf, pulling the giant AI handbook off and flipping through the index. Maintenance, functions, schedules… issues! Skimming the pages for anything on strange behavior, he found very little that matched what had just happened, yet he did find a 24 hour phone number in case of emergencies, and without a moment's hesitation, his phone was in his hand and he was listening to the phone ring in his ear as he stared at Alfred's stiff body on the floor, hand gently holding onto the place where finger-like bruises were forming.
"It shut itself down!" A bespectacled man sputtered, choking briefly on his coffee as he stared at the screen which stated "connection has been lost".
"It did what?!" A brunet asked, leaning over the table to see. The blond man turned the laptop around to show his companion, who studied it closely. "Could it be the reception? A malfunction on our part?"
"No," the other said, "our connection is perfect, see?" He pulled up the bars to demonstrate. Indeed, their connection couldn't be better. "There were no glitches, no problems. It took a while to hack into the program, but there were no faults! The program simply…. Shut itself off."
"Could it be something to do with defense?" A smaller boy piped up, returning to the table at the coffee shop with a small hot chocolate which trembled in his shaking hands.
"No, I shut down all automatic functions." He shifted the glasses a bit, as though the angle could change the message on the screen. "Anything that was in place to shut down during an emergency wouldn't have been functional. This was something else."
"Maybe Alfred did it?" The boy offered, sipping his drink, but stopping when his two accomplices stared at him, dumbfounded. "The…. The robot?"
"You're suggesting the robot consciously turned itself off?" The other blond said, as though the boy were daft. "You realize how impossible that is."
"Well, Kirkland robots are known to defy the impossible," the green-eyed man offered. His companions thought on this for a moment, before the oldest sighed and closed his laptop.
"No matter, this is clearly a problem, and one thing's for certain; Mr. Braginsky will not be happy…" A shudder ran through the trio, and they all held in their breath, none jumping at the opportunity to stand face what awaited them.
Kiku's hand clutched his knee as he listened closely. After going through a maze of questions through an automated system, he was finally being connected to a real person. That, including the time he had been on hold, was adding up to about half an hour on the phone, but this mattered little as he kept glancing to the silent and stiff robot that had yet to move from it's place on the floor.
"Hello, welcome to the Kirkland Industries help line, my name is Kaylyn and I'll be taking care of you this afternoon, how may I help you?" A British voice on the other end said in English, though it was slow and clear enough that he caught it and its meaning.
"Hello," Kiku said in his thick accent, "my name is Honda Kiku and I received a robot a few weeks ago. This morning he was acting strangely, and, well, something happened about thirty minutes ago. He attempted to leave, and when I stopped him he…." Kiku paused. He wondered if he should admit to how Alfred had nearly injured him, or done more than the bruises he had already inflicted. Thankfully, she continued before he was forced to explain, likely catching his reluctance.
"What is the PR's serial number?" She asked, and Kiku could hear the constant tapping of the keys on some unseen computer.
"Serial number?" Kiku asked in a confused manner, glancing down at the handbook as though it had the answers.
"The series of numbers on your PR's back," she clarified. Kiku stood, stepping closer to Alfred's lifeless body. He briefly shuddered at the cold feeling of Alfred's skin, but reminded himself that Alfred was normally colder, and that he wasn't truly dead, nor was he really alive. For a moment, he wondered the truth of that, but the sound of clacking on the other end of the line prompted him to put all philosophical debates to the side. Blushing a bit, he carefully lifted Alfred's shirt, thankful he wouldn't have to turn the body over to reach his back. It took only a moment to locate the string of numbers the woman mentioned, just at the base of Alfred's spine.
"Uh…" He paused, reading it over to make sure he didn't say anything incorrectly. "A-K-1-2-3-0-7-0-4-A-F-J." Kiku said, reading the numbers over again to check for mistakes. Abruptly, the clacking on the other end halted, and for a moment, Kiku wondered if perhaps the connection was interrupted. He was preparing to ask if she was there, when she spoke up again.
"Does your PR, by any chance, go by the name Alfred?" She asked curiously, something hidden in her words.
"Um… yes?" Kiku said, as though it were up for debate. There was a frantic shuffling of papers on the other end, and a few mumbles too low and quick for Kiku to catch.
"Uh, okay…." She said, her demeanor quickly becoming flustered. "Sir, I'll need you to hang up and call a different number. Could you, perhaps, write the number down somewhere?" Slight irritation that Kiku may have felt at being transferred after finally reaching a human being was quickly overshadowed by curiosity. Finding a pen, but no paper anywhere, he was left only with the option of writing on the back of the cover of the AI handbook. "Are you ready?"
"Yes, I am," Kiku responded, writing down the number as he was relayed each digit. She double-checked, having picked up on his accent, but when certain he had it correct, she spoke again.
"Please do not pass this number to others," she said firmly. "This number is a private one and it would be inconvenient to have to change it. Again. Thank you, and have a nice day."
Before any more could be said, she hung up, and Kiku was left with a new number. Sighing, he relented and called, silently listening to the ringing of the phone. It went on for quite some time, and he was already preparing an explanation for the answering machine when the phone was picked up and a rather irate British voice spoke on the other end.
"Bloody hell, do you know what time it is?" The man said on the other end of the line. "Who in their right mind calls me at two in the god damn morning?! Is this you, Francis?" Kiku paused, glancing at the clock and realizing there must be a time difference between here and there. International calls twice in one day… great…
"Um, I apologize," Kiku said softly. "My name is Honda Kiku, and I have a robot from the Kirkland AI program that has malfunctioned."
"Great," the man mumbled sarcastically. "Now look in your handbook and find the emergency number for such cases. Problem solved, good night." Click.
Kiku stared at his phone for a long while, eyebrows knitted together. Normally he would wait for a more appropriate time to call someone who was clearly very irate, but Alfred was his friend and he couldn't simply let him stay in such a state. He dialed again.
This time, he only got a few rings in when the phone was picked up. "I told you to go find the emergency call number!" The man snapped immediately.
"This is more than that!" Kiku said quickly, before the man could hang up again. "He wasn't acting like himself. I need help, and I was sent to you."
"Well I'm clearly the wrong person, so find someone else," he said, and hung up again. Kiku, already prepared, was dialing within seconds.
"What the bloody fuck is your problem?!" The man nearly screamed at Kiku.
"A-K-1-2-3-0-7-0-4-A-F-J," Kiku relayed before any more curses could be spouted at him. "Alfred, a robot from the Kirkland AI program, has malfunctioned and nearly threw me against the floor. Something is terribly wrong and for some reason I was sent to you, so if you could kindly help me it would be very much appreciated!" A very long silence followed his angry statement, and briefly he wondered if he had offended the man further, as well as if he cared if he did.
"Shit…" the man mumbled, and Kiku could hear the sound of covers being thrown away and lights being turned on. "Shit this… shit…. I knew it…."
"Excuse me?" Kiku said, a bit too harshly as the man on the other end sighed.
"Alfred F Jones," the man mumbled, still a bit sleepy. "Alfred was the second AI of the Kirkland Industries AI Program, just after another given the name Matthew Williams. He has an upbeat personality and a curious nature. This is the same Alfred we're talking about, correct?"
Kiku was taken aback by this specific statement. While he had not known most of what the man had said about Alfred, the personality sounded the same. "Yes, I think so?" Kiku responded. "I didn't know he was-"
"No, likely not," the man said, sounding as though he were opening and closing cabinets. "No one was supposed to know just which robot he was. He was supposed to be integrated without trouble. Looks like I was wrong…"
"I'm sorry, but I am incredibly confused right now," Kiku said firmly. "I would very much appreciate a straight and simple answer." The man on the other end stopped doing whatever he was doing and sighed.
"Alfred was a revolution in technology. A unique and interesting character that could easily be mistaken as human," he explained. "He is one of a kind and very different from most of the AI's at our program. This means he's very much a desired target for competing companies…. I figured shipping him out would keep him the safest, especially if he was treated as any other AI. Turns out I was wrong."
"I… see…" Kiku said slowly, still feeling rather confused. "But then, who are you?"
"I'm the one who made him," the man said. "I'm Arthur Kirkland, and you may be in great danger."